Mint produces 10kg gold coin
A 10KG gold coin has been produced by the Royal Mint, which is the biggest in its 1,100-year history.
It took 400 hours to produce the coin, described by the Llantrisant Mint as a “masterwork”, including four days of polishing.
The huge coin has already been sold. The Mint did not give details about the sale or purchaser, but said that a coin of this calibre and craftsmanship would be priced in the region of six figures.
The 20cm-wide coin was created by a team of master craftspeople at the Royal Mint, combining traditional skills with innovative technology. Modern techniques were used at the start of the process, with engraving machines used to carefully cut the design onto the coin, which has a denomination of £10,000.
A master toolmaker then hand-worked the coin, removing any marks made by the cutting process, before four days of polishing. Finally, the coin was laser-frosted to texture the surface, completing 400 hours of work.
For those whose budgets would not have stretched in any case to purchase the £10,000denomination gold masterwork, versions of the design are available in a range of finishes, with prices starting at £13 for a £5-denomination brilliant uncirculated coin.
The coin marks the conclusion of the Mint’s Queen’s Beasts commemorative coin collection. The series takes its inspiration from 10 stone statues that lined the Queen’s route to Westminster Abbey at her coronation in 1953.
The coin reunites a lion, griffin, falcon, bull, yale, greyhound, dragon, unicorn and a horse.